NHS England, Public Health England, the Department of Health and NHS Improvement have today unveiled measures to boost the uptake of flu vaccinations along with package of new contingency actions to respond to pressures on frontline services this winter. Intensified preparations include:

•Providing free flu vaccines for hundreds of thousands of care home staff at a cost of up to £10m as well as increasing the number of jabs for young children in schools and vulnerable people

•Directing NHS trusts to ensure they make vaccines readily available to staff and record why those who choose to opt out of the programme do so

•Writing to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers reminding them of their professional duty to protect patients by being vaccinated

•Setting up a new National Emergency Pressure Panel to provide independent clinical advice on system risk and an appropriate regional and national response

•The biggest expansion in training for A&E consultants ever with hundreds more doctors over the next four years and other healthcare staff